Friday Oct 27

Founded in 2006 by Alex Tebeleff (Black Lodge) along with childhood friends Eddie Rivers and Jeff Galfond, and fleshed out by various collaborators over the years - on Are These The Questions We Need To Ask?, Tebeleff has continued the project and is joined by new writing partners Matt Dowling (Deleted Scenes, The Effects, Joy Buttons) and Rick Irby (Den-Mate, Wanted Man, Jau Ocean) - Paperhaus functions as both a band and a creative collective, the latter in the form of their famed house venue (infamously featured on the pilot of HGTV's DC Flippers). After a tense election season and the loss of a central collaborator to the sun of Los Angeles, Tebeleff felt it was time to change up the project's approach. A steady diet of modular synthesizers, community organizing and collaborative experimentation with aforementioned players emboldened his resolve to ride Paperhaus to its inevitable next stage.

And here we are: now. Are These The Questions We Need To Ask? marks a turning point for Paperhaus. Through a wide palate of psych, kraut, classic pop and noise Paperhaus rips through eight exciting new tracks, each paying service to the album's whole. The current ensemble shines most on new songs like "Told You What To Say," "Go Cozy," and "Walk Through The Woods," where some of the band's heaviest guitars mix with a potent, mechanical rhythm section and Tebeleff's Moog Sub 37, on which many of these compositions were first conceived. The lyrics - penned by Tebeleff and Dowling - reflect the band's newly matured worldview, infusing their long-held commitment to community with a sense of wide-eyed awe. Settling into a series of studios over the last two years, the final recorded product was expertly engineered and mixed by Peter Larkin of The Lighthouse Recording Studio in Alexandria, VA. All things considered, Are These The Questions We Need To Ask? shows a new band ready to lead their peers out onto the next branch. They haven't forgotten where they came from, but instead, they're forging ahead, despite the anxiety of the unknown.